Is it worth it?

Time: 8:00 AM
Channel-A

Good Morning....Today's Headlines......

>PM meets Mussharf in Havana.
>Tensions escalate in middle-east
> Angry protests over Pope's remarks
> WI win the ODI against Aus....

Now take another channel B for example which is telecasting news at the same time.....

good morning....Today's headlines......
>PM meets Mussharaf in Havana.
> Girls win over college administration in Chandigarh.
> Minister fined for travelling without a ticket.
> Sting operation exposes xyz in UP.
>
>
I think these are some of the common things that we come across in day to day life. what i mean to say is, how different news channels see different things as matters of national importance!!! Isn't there a limit to all the crap that we get to see in so many news channels. Thank God there are some specialized channels like Business channels, Cartoon Network and NGC/Discovery types.....otherwise it is the same old boring crap repeated over and over again.....and then there seems to be a new trend where the common man can voice his opinion.....through SMS. recently in one of the episode of "Laughter Challenge" there was a reference to these incidents which I would like to quote here......

"On a day not too far from now....the CEO of a newschannel was unhappy that his team was not doing enough to get all those "Exclusive" videos and "Flash" news, so he comes up with a plan to boost up the viewership of his channel; to telecast an incident before it even happens!!!!"
you must be wondering how this is possible???....Let us just for few minutes imagine that the channel goes ahead with this decision and later that day there is a kidnap scheduled to happen.....a girl is to be abducted by some goons and the newschannel comes to know about this. then the incident will be something like this.....
"Good Morning.....welcome to our special show...."Kabhar se pehle kabhar" . Today we will show you the girl who is going to be kidnapped exactly 5 hours from now......see this girl carefully; she's so young, so innocent, but she will be kidnapped by some goons without any kindness. This is an exclusive report.....let us take the opinion from the girl herself....."Mam....mam...you are going to be kidnapped in another 5 hours...how are you feeling about this?" The Girl says," well....i am kinda tensed, i have been told that i will be kidnapped; but they haven't specified how and who will kidnap me. i am really very excited, but i guess i would prefer if the goons don't use any knives because i am scared of sharp objects."......"That was the girl who will be kidnapped in another 5 hours by goons who will not see that she's so young and innocent....but will kidnap her in another 5 hours without any kindness.......this is XXX with Cameraman YYYY from Mumbai".

Studio: Thank you Mr.XXXX for your update on the incident which is going to happen later today. we will stay in touch with you throughout these tense moments. You, the viewers can also participate in our show, please send in your comments and letters to this address....."crap....crap.....crap...."....which leads to our question of the day...."What instrument will the goons use to kidnap this girl? A.Knive B.Pistol C.Lathi D.none of the above.....please remember the girl had earlier told us that she's afraid of Knives and other sharp objects.......you can see this in our exclusive footage....(scene repeats.......scene repeats....scene repeats.......until a wise thought knocks your head to shut down the crap and change over to something worthy.....)

Well maybe this programme hasn't yet invaded the channels, but going by the current trend that day will not be too far. I am baffled when i see the content of these so called 24*7 News channels......don't they run out of things that they can show!!!!! I guess this is exactly why there is so much of crappy repitition and all the worthless things that are picturised as matters of national importance. Check this out......

1.In the past few days i have seen reports about a snake which was chasing a young chap apparently to take revenge on him!!!! and later it was pacified after the villagers follwed the suggestions of a Baba...!!!!
2.In a village not too far from Delhi....people believe that some ghosts have occupied the police station.
3. In a village in Gujarat, people are not allowed to sing Himmesh resshamiya's tunes because a ghost haunts those who do it!!!!......(it is another matter that i seriously wish that ghost directly goes and sits in his studio, atleast that would prevent him from singing all that crappy songs...[:)]

and so on!!!!....In an attempt to show all these so called "exclusive" reports people go just too far to potray some of the most trivial matters as matters of national importance. it is high time we realise the job of media is just not to create sensation but also suggest/raise an issue which needs to be seriously looked upon. it is high time, that we realise that media ought to be an eye opener and not just an encyclopedia of human lives. is it really worth spending so much time getting all these things infront of people???.....is it really worth seeing all these sensational things???.....Is it really worth thinking about all these things???....Is it worth it???......

then an idea knocks my head and i become wise again......i switch on to HBO.....[:)].....alas!!! has been blocked in Maharshtra for apparently showing "A" rated movies......i wonder if the high court knows that there are more number of 18+ population than the people who whom this law is supposed to protect....[:)]

Misinterpreted......

There is perhaps no other process like "Interpretation" which can influence a society or country. What we are seeing in the past few years in the world around us is the consequences of the "interpretation" of an incident. One group which i would say largerly responsible for this process is the Media.....these are the people who interpret the incident or news in the so called "best interest" of the people, without a single clue that the people that they are blaming are also watching the channel....for example take the example of the American Media. Long ago they termed the word "terrorist", maybe initially it was used in a very politically correct manner as someone who has no shape, no religion, no country whose sole aim is to terrorise the community.....but these days, i am very sad to say that things which were not supposed to happen are happening....now the terrorist has a name....he has a form....he has a country....he has a religion...[:(]. The media goes a long way in expressing their views when some incident happens...again as an example take 9/11 attacks....YES...that was a very inhumane act....nobody has a right to destroy another person's life....no religion teaches you to kill someone else....no country has a foreign policy of killing others, but look at the aftermath of those attacks. It was interpreted as an "attack on America's Independence" and that every human being in that country was in danger; instead of safeguarding the country from within, the incident gave a great excuse to wage a war on some remote country thousands of miles away where the only thing that grew was "Opium"!!!!.....In what one can term as the futuristic approach, applying the principle of "Prevention is Better than Cure"....this world super power was on a mission to destroy the terror outfits and now some supposedly potential nuclear threats.....

What i fail to understand is the fact that we form an opinion on what others think about the issue....often there are sensitive issues such as religion, faith which are always under scanner.....take the issue related to christianity.....when the movie "da Vinci Code" was set to release there were protests all over the world....(and India especially) that it was against the religion; well maybe dan brown did or did not intend to mean that...but before we even the saw the movie or read the book, where the debate is obviously open ended it was interpreted as being against the religion. another recent issue were the remarks of Pope Benedict related to Jihad.....my knowlegde in things like these are very limited, but don't you think these issues are taken too seriously??....maybe Pope misinterpreted the facts of the original conversation of the 14th century emporer Byzantine with the Islamic teacher.......and this quote from the Pope might lead to forming an opinion across sections who strictly follow his words....phew!!!...Mind is such a complex creature...you never know what thoughts crop up and what plans will be made...

Why go to all these places around the world....take our own country; how many times have we seen politicians and celebrities say that their statement has been in "Misinterpreted" or "Misquoted".....take the example of channels like Aaj Tak, India TV, Star News....and newspapers like TOI which all boast of having a large viewership in most parts of the country....these are the things which are going to influence the mind of the reader.....it is really a serious issue when they write something on an incident..because love it or hate it.....you cannot ignore it. It hurts when media/newspapers come to their own conclusion depending on the opinions of the so called "elite" panel (i was shocked to read that the recent blasts in Mumbai were targeted mainly on Gujaratis...). Now please don't get me wrong, but i think it is really important what you conclude after reading a report or seeing something on TV......

Let us all hope that things like these don't effect us.....let us hope that these "misinterpretations" don't change our lives....let us hope that they don't change our world.....

long time....

yup...it's been a really long time since i have blogged. Blame it on my schedule; though it's not that hectic but it definitely is kinda hard to get access to a comp...[:(]....Anyway things have changed a lot in the past few days, rather i have to see few months. Some good, some not so good.....first things first, i was pretty happy to know that all my friends have made some pretty nice jobs and also that my wing was the richest in the whole batch and Akki's wing was pretty close too....[:)].....hehehe....it is quite interesting rather curiousity i should say to stay in touch with all my friends in Bangalore, hyderabad and Pilani. And me in Pune which was pretty exciting in the starting few days. The city is pretty good to live in actually; it sort of has this urban India feel to it something close to Bangalore and Hyderabad. I had planned to explore the whole place in the initial few weekends and then keep the rest of the weekends aside for going to far off places like Goa, Nashik, Mumbai etc., This was until of course I realised that I was lagging behind in my prep for CAT. and everything changed in August. i began spending more time at home; made some nice friends, and mingled pretty well with a nice Tamilian family staying close to my house. And then there were my movies.....the watching spree was going in full throttle in the first few weeks and then started becoming very occasional though there was a continuous of movies through DVDs.....have to mention a point here; probably i saw some of the best Hindi movies in the past few days...starting from Guru Dutt's "Pyaasa", "Sahib Biwi Aur Ghulam" on DVD and in Cinema Hall......loved "Omkaara" and "lagey raho Munnabhai".
Chary has left for his MS to California, Garam to Toronto and pretty soon Apar too to some univ in England, Madhu to Germany.....after spending time with all these seniors I feel so nostalgic of all those good times...it also makes me think about the time not too distant in future when i will face a situation when i will be standing near the gate of some metropolitan Airport; and bid goodbye to friends who will soon soon leave for their job/studies. I guess everyone will have to encounter situations like these but it is the life after that which is quite puzzling without all those wonderful around. I think i am going through things like that almost everyday; not having too many people around, not much to talk about even with people whom i meet everyday. which is exactly why there seem to be too many things to talk about when you see a friend online or on the phone....alas! little do i know that they were too busy playing CS that time....hehehe....i must have disturbed so many guys who were at the peak of the level in the tournament....[:)].....

Maybe this sentence is sort of cliche' because every chap whom i come across says this.....these days even i have started thinking about it. we say, "It is so boring here da....i seriously want to get back to Campus".....maybe everybody lives under the same sky and they see the same Sun and Moon.....i guess it's a sort of feeling which is strong in each and everyone of us that makes us yearn for the college life. you may call it as "home away from home".....but i would prefer terming it as....perhaps the only place on earth where you are the boss of your own life...you can control the dynamics of almost everything around you...and also owe a lot to those around you...perhaps the only place where you feel you own your life....you live a life. I guess the scene from the movie "Shawshank Redemption" best summarizes my thoughts; yup i am talking about the letter which the old librarian sends to his friends back in prison and also the one which Morgan Freeman explains after he is released from prison.

life is full of little surprises and it is things like these that keep you going. perhaps there is no better thing than conversing with all the little people who matter.....there is no ego....no jealously....just a pure heart to heart discussion about everything that you can come up with.....i think this is exactly what one needs to learn in college.....it definitely help a lot in days to come, and i can assure that it will take you places.....it will prevent this "there are so many boring things around" idea from cropping up every now and then to a large extent. Which leads to the latest thing going in my mind......there are days when we rarely think about everything going around us....which is in a way Ok....but then there is something called as "Ripple Effect"....and also the "Chaos Theory"...which states that an incident can occur after originating from a different incident nowhere connected to it thousands of miles away.....something like the butterfly fluttering in one part of world can cause a typhoon in another part.......this is probably the inspiration to my next story that i am writing now named......."IT MATTERS......".

"IT MATTERS...."
...coming soon to your inbox......
Note: Not available in all territories (read as inbox)
Check Out your local listings for availibility....[:)]

Till then.....Good Day.....Hope you have a great time ahead......